Ruined King A League of Legends Story

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story is a fantasy RPG with turn-based combat system. Responsible for the project is Airship Syndicate, the studio behind Darksiders Genesis and Battle Chasers: Nightwar. The project is part of the Riot Forge initiative, in which Riot Games publishes games of other developers set in the universe of League of Legends.

Plot

The story revolves around the city of Bilgewater, hidden among the Blue Flame Islands, full of criminals and degenerates, and the Shadow Islands, destroyed years ago by a mysterious cataclysm. Queen Bilgewater, eager to bring order to her city, gathers a team of heroes to face the growing influence of the Black Mist.

In the game we have to control six heroes: bounty hunter Miss Fortune, priestess Illaoi, strongman Braum, harpooner Pyk, fox Ahri and warrior Yasuo. During the course of the story, apart from participating in heroic battles, we'll have a chance to observe their changing relationships and deepen our knowledge of the lore of the world presented.

Gameplay

Ruined King's mechanics are governed by different rules than those known from League of Legends. We are dealing here with the game intended only for one player, set in an open world full of dangerous tasks and puzzles. Its exploration requires from us the right approach. We can get to some locations only by using the special power of one of the characters, for example, to break through the fragile walls, Braum has to hit them with his shield. The locations are very vivid and we can interact with them through conversations with random NPCs or initiating duels with enemies.

The combat system, despite some similarities to the main game, has also seen considerable changes. The developers focused on turn-based team battles, requiring from us a tactical approach and appropriate resource management. Each character has its own unique skills, divided into active and passive. Many of them enter into special combinations with each other, so it's worth paying attention to the composition of the team. We can also support ourselves with potions: healing, supplementing mana or additional, increasing the effectiveness of attacks. The battles are greatly influenced by the equipment of the heroes - each is equipped with weapons, armor and up to 3 accessories, found in the game world or gained by winning fights.

The game does not lack character development. After reaching a higher level, we improve our hero in one of 12 statistics (including resistance to physical attacks, endurance, the chance of a critical hit). Additionally, each of these parameters can be strengthened by crafting items. Crafting is divided into making accessories, alchemy, enchanting and cooking.

Among other side activities we can find fishing, performing side tasks and orders, participating in arena fights or collecting information about the world of Runeterra. All this is connected with special rewards, both improving our stats and changing our characters visually.

Technical issues

Visually, the production is kept in a similar style as the original League of Legends. We are still dealing with a cartoon style, and most of the game is observed from an isometric view. The perspective changes during fights, when the camera presents the action from the side, and dialogues, when characters and transcriptions of their conversations appear in the middle of the screen.